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Islam is the religion of peace?

Islam is the religion of peace. So say the Muslims. Do you believe any of it? As though the extremists who crashed a plane into the world trade center are not enough proof, here are some passages from their “peaceful” holy texts. These are passages that Muslims believe are their Scriptures. These are passages that Muslims say their god, Allah, wrote down as his revelation. These are their completely inspired, fully authoritative, holy texts (I say texts because Muslims don’t only accept the Quran, but other books are very important in Islam, for example, the Hadith which recounts tales about the prophet Mohammad).

After reading these passages, which Muslims hold to be authoritative, can you truly say that Islam is the religion of peace?

“And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.” (القرآن الكريم 2:191)

“And Allah delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and completely destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:”( تثنية 2:33-34)

“And Allah saidunto Mūsā, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Ĕmōrī, which dwelt at Heshbon. So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.” (عدد 21:34-35)

“So Allah delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. And we completely destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Esebon, completely destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.” (تثنية 3:3-6)

“The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom;” (القرآن الكريم 5:33)

“And Allah said unto Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn.. take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for Allah will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of Allah shall ye do… and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.” (يشوع 8:1-2;7-8, 22)

“And surely your blood of your lives will Allah require; at the hand of every beast will Allah require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will Allah require the life of man.” (تكوين 9:5-6)

“This is what Allah says… Now go, attack the Imlīq and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ (صموئيل 15:2-3)

“And they warred against the Madyan, as Allah commanded Mūsā; and they slew all the males…. And Mūsā was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Mūsā said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? …. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” (عدد 31:7, 15, 17)

Here are our three propositions:

1. Muslims believe the passages above are 100% from Allah and show the character of Allah.

2. There are many historical instances of Muslim violence.

3. Muslims claim they have the religion of peace

Can these three presuppositions exists together? Can Muslims really argue about number 3 when they also have numbers 1 and 2? Is this not a case of hypocrisy? What do you think?

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2 responses

Hi Yuriy, new reader to your blog, fellow follower of Christ, and fellow amateur theologian. Couldn’t a Muslim write a nearly identical post about Christians claiming to be a religion of peace and string together a bunch of OT quotes and use the same three propositions (exchanging, of course, Christianity for Islam)?